They are technically "still available", yes. But they aren't in that, someone can't today log on and decide they are going to farm up the shards to buy one. Though they'll be "available" via the AH for a long time to come.

Was nice of them to leave the vendors in for a bit so people can spend any of their excess shards.

They will likely stay in the 1k range or even lower for at least another year. A lot of people have stockpiled them, as it seemed like a good long term investment given that they're technically no longer obtainable (as in, there is no way to generate shards anymore). However, actual scarcity (and thus price increases) won't happen until the people who hoarded them have sold theirs off and the stockpiles are left with the few big AH players on each server, and that is likely to take a while. Hell, if anyone here missed getting one and still need it, just PM me and I'll give you one for free.